Functional Org Chart: Definition, Pons and Cons

Definition of Functional Org Chart

The functional org chart divides people into different groups based on expertise and specialty. This structure gets involved in a great amount of process standardization within a company, with the real decision-making authority centered at the top of the organization. Employees in one department are responsible only for relevant tasks. For instance, an HR department that focuses only on recruitment & training, a sales department that only engages in sales activities, and an engineering department that only designs products and produces facilities.

Advantages of Functional Org Chart

Employees are instructed and trained by the person with experience and profession.

Employees are offered a chance to get promoted in their field which can make them stay longer in a company.

Employees with the same professional work together can accelerate knowledge sharing.

Disadvantages of Functional Org Chart

Team spirit is lacking in this organizational structure. Although specialized employees can often work with high efficiency, they may fail to cooperate well with colleagues from different departments.

It’s hard to control management. This type of org chart sets challenges for the top manager to maintain the whole company as the business expands widely. Top managers cannot give orders directly to all staff, but they have to assign the mission to several department managers. Then department managers continue to split the task into smaller parts to give them to every single person.